I'm not claiming any particular expertise here, but wouldn't the result
be heavily dependent on the relative masses? I'm assuming (possibly
incorrectly) that the mass of the satellite was much greater than that
of the asat payload. Given that, the combined momentum of the resulting
debris cloud wouldn't be much different from the prior momentum of the
satellite. I'm not at all sure that one can make any particular
deductions about the relative velocity of the asat by observing the
resulting debris cloud. I'm also reasonably sure that one is unlikely to
say very much at all about the post-collision kinetic energy relative to
the pre-collision kinetic energy. Only the momentum would be conserved.
Just my 2c, of course...
Regards
Duncan
Christian Kjśrnet wrote:
> Greg,
>
> If the ASAT weapon indeed had struck the satellite head on, the result would
> have been numerous pieces of debris (maybe up to 50%) traveling in the
> opposite direction, and some pieces would have fallen to the ground. No such
> pieces exist. That would have been like a head on collision between two
> cars, where the two wrecks and most debris normally come to rest about at
> the collision point.
>
> Given that all the debris pieces now travel in the same direction as the
> target and in about the same orbital plane, one can conclude that the ASAT
> weapon did strike from behind, with approximately a coplanar trajectory; and
> since most debris pieces have a higher orbit than the target satellite had
> originally, this indicates that the ASAT weapon struck from slightly below
> the satellite.
>
> To conclude: The ASAT weapon probably struck from behind and slightly below
> the target satellite.
>
> Christian
>
>
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